onsdag den 19. oktober 2016

I had some trouble with a custom script extension where the script required a SAS token to download some software. The token was simply truncated after the first '&'.

After some digging I thought I had to put the SAS token into quotes, and when looking into C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Compute.CustomScriptExtension\1.8\RuntimeSettings\0.settings I found that it was a sensible solution. I could also copy the "commandToExecute" and run it and get the expected result. In the variables section I added a:

"variables": {
"singlequote": "'",

And then put single quotes around the parameters('SASToken'). But no dice. The token was still getting truncated, this time with a 'in front...

So I decided to get rid of the '&', at least temporarily. base64 encoding to the rescue. And Luckily there is an ARM template function for just that. In the script I then added:

Now we see that something uninteded is happening for both ErrorActions Continue/SilentlyContinue. 3 is echoed still. With Stop the story is as before, Write-Error becomes a terminating error and 3 is not echoed.

torsdag den 29. september 2016

We recently discussed webhooks internally at work and the question popped on how to maintain and log the activity. Webhooks normally have a limited timespan (could be years though), and they should generally be kept a secret even if they are accompanied by a token that authorizes the caller.

What better way to log the webhook calls than using OMS Log Analytics? Once the data is logged there you have a plethora of options on what to do with it. Go ask my colleague Stanislav.

I documented the entire solution on Github, and you can find the repository here - it takes you from A to Z on how to setup the various moving parts in Azure. I hope you can find some inspiration on how to manage your webhooks.

mandag den 26. september 2016

I had a hard time finding out how to integrate a Github Repository into Azure functions, or rather what files and the structure to put in the repository so that Azure Functions would pick them up. A very basic setup follows.

This assumes an understanding of Github and Azure Functions. There are plenty of resources out there explaining that better than I can.

That is it! Commit to Github and go to your Azure Function app and integrate with the repository. The HelloAzureFunctions should appear as a function after a short while.You can fork my repository if you like, https://github.com/spaelling/hello-azure-functions. There is also a a PowerShell script there that can be used for testing (you can just paste in the webhook URI in a browser if you rather like that).Also keep your webhooks a secret. In the aforementioned script I show how to get the webhook URI from an Azure Key Vault.

fredag den 16. september 2016

I wanted to figure out what we were spending our money on, but our bank is lacking behind when it comes to finance insight, so what better way than to use PowerBI?

First you need to export your bank statements into CSV. We have multiple accounts, so I just looked into the account that we use for everyday shopping (food, etc.). I had some trouble importing into PowerBI, so I imported the CSV data into Excel where you then have to select (all) the data and make it into a table (ctrl+t) before you can import it into PowerBI.

I had to sanitize the data; removing transfers from one account to another and purchases that should have been made on another account. If you spot something later simply remove the row in excel and import the file again.

You are now ready to create some reports based on the bank statement data. It should look something like this (if there is only a single row in the fields box it means that PowerBI was unable to make sense of the data):

Now check the box next to the Σ and then one of the other options and then click the pie-chart icon. My bank statement comes with category and sub-category for each entry. If you have some sort of categorisation, and checked that, then you will see something like this (without redactions):

Wow! Ok, you could do that in Excel also (I would spend hours how to figure this out in Excel though). It simply shows the distribution of purchases into each category. The big one is grocery-shopping, which is the primary purpose for this account.

Now comes the magic. Deselect the graph and then again click on the Σ, and whatever translates into an entry description and select the table icon. That is more or less just what we have in Excel, right?

Select one of the categories in the piechart and see what happens.

It now shows only the entries (summary of the amount) in the table that are related to the category that you selected. This is just the tip of the iceberg. PowerBI can do much more than that!

Finally you can figure out what your wife is spending all your money on ;)